tapestry
by ink teardrops
Summary: "We are forever," she whispers, and he hopes she is wrong, and he watches as the flame hearted lover that might have been forms a golden thread on the tapestry of his life —-Teddy thinks of Lily, the girl he always wanted and Victoire, the girl who has ensnared him —unrequited!TeddyLily, TeddyVictoire, for Erin


**Title: **tapestry

**Summary: **"We are forever," she whispers, and he hopes she is wrong, and he watches as the flame hearted lover that might have been forms a golden thread on the tapestry of his life —-Teddy thinks of Lily, the girl he always wanted and Victoire, the girl who has ensnared him —unrequited!TeddyLily, TeddyVictoire, for Erin

**Challenge/Prompts: **GGE, June, with the prompts song, broken heart, strings, puppets, frozen, floor, caught, piano.

**Notes: **This is for the wondrous Erin (xThe Painted Lady), who requested a multitude of fab pairings, amongst which were TeddyLily and TeddyVictoire, and I hope you don't mind, but I sort of combined the two. I hope you enjoy this, darling, and sorry for its lateness!

* * *

"We are forever," she whispers, and he hopes she is wrong.

White-blonde hair and floor length ball gowns, she pushes open the limousine door, diamonds glittering at her neck, climbing the stairs of a white-marble palace of champagne and social climbers and she _knows_ that she is the star, she is who they have gathered to see – to win her approval and to stand in awe of her presence.

"We are _forever_," she murmurs in his ear, and he still hopes she is wrong.

They arrive at the ornate double doors that scream decadence and old money, and are ticked off the guest-list with a flourish. Red lipstick and fur coats, she looks completely at one with the high-ceilinged entrance hall and the priceless antiques, amongst the most affluent and influential of the Wizarding World, in some Chelsea palace that holds the most dazzling and powerful bodies of the country.

"We are _forever_, Teddy Lupin, and don't you forget it," she hisses, as the doors begin to open.

Porcelain skin and designer heels, she steps into the room, as the words "Teddy Lupin and his fiancée, Victoire Weasley" echo across the marbled expanse, and every eye in the room swivels towards them. She flashes her winning smile and manicured nails and engagement ring, picks up a flute of champagne from a passing waiter.

"Never, ever forget it," she purrs, flashing him a beautiful, _fake_ smile and waltzes across the room to go and socialise with the finest.

And he stands there, in the room full of the elite and sees the tapestry of his life stretching before him, woven with Victoire and ambition and money and jewels and, he wonders what other colours would be sewn in there if he had only been someone other than Teddy Lupin and had claimed the heart of someone other than Victoire Weasley.

If he had, for example, caught the heart of a flame haired, fire hearted girl between fingertips and held her there for all of eternity

Across the room, she flashes a dangerous, sweet smile and he wishes, in that instant, that he could be somewhere else with someone else.

* * *

If Teddy was wild, maybe Lily would be his.

If he had jumped from the edge without a parachute or dared to climb the sky, then maybe, he would be holding the impossible, wild, _beautiful_ Lily Luna in his arms and clutching her restless heart between strong fingertips.

Perhaps they would live in the centre of London, in the heart of the city, where the thrum of the traffic and the pulse of the inhabitants creeps through the windows, where the silver bloodlines of the nation and the shadow of endless dreams combine and explode in a vibrant blur of roaming souls and marching feet.

They would tiptoe through their doors and sneak up onto rooftops, become just two more silhouettes on the skyline, and stand out against the shadows. They would smoke cigarettes and watch the smoke dance and fade into the black night, and they would talk about the present – never looking forward or back, but always living in the moment.

At night, they would have sunk back into their bed and joined together in a haze of smoke and dreams and night-time longings – he would have painted circles of daring and desire on her back and in turn, she would paint his lips with the present and silhouettes of the people they could be.

Maybe, Teddy would have been a photographer, just like he'd considered once upon a time, but hadn't dared to waste five Outstanding NEWTs but, maybe, in this life he would've decided to pursue his dream – he would have taken black and white photographs of Lily leaning out of the window in their flat; cracking, derelict piano keys that wailed broken symphonies at his command; the grit and the pulse of inner-city London and the curl of smoke through the buildings that climb towards the sky. Lily's face would stare at them from billboards, her flaming hair and black rimmed eyes watching over the heart of the city and the people that roamed its endless streets. Maybe they would spend all their money on booze and fags, perhaps they would be awoken at all hours by rattling cars and shouting souls, maybe it wouldn't be a manor or glittering diamonds but, they would be _happy_.

It would burn out eventually; of course, because Lily would be too flighty and Teddy, too brazen – it would burn out in an explosion of fire and passion and they would have melted away somehow in the heat. Perhaps they would grow up – Teddy would end up taking professional photos for high-end fashion campaigns and Lily would have begun to walk down the catwalks of Milan and Paris. They would still smile and talk at family gatherings and remain friends and even reminisce about what they could have been, but they would always know that they would never get back to the years of midnight smoking and childhood dreaming but, no matter what, they'd still hear the endless thrum and the drumming of the city and it would unite them, forever.

They would always have the memories of the smoky silver threads they spun across their capital city and, the threads, like smoke, would eventually fade out into the dark city, but Teddy and Lily would be happy in the knowledge that those threads would entwine with the pulsing city and leave their mark on the landscape forever.

* * *

He could've been daring Teddy, the bold lover of Lily Potter, but at the end of the day, when it boils down to it, all he is, is Victoire's key to a brighter future.

With Lily, it might've end in a broken heart, but maybe in the end, it would be worth it, just to live in a world where he could be anything but perfect Teddy Lupin, who had to spend his life being Victoire's puppet, and having his every string, every move rearranged just so they could climb a little bit higher on the silver ladder of ambition.

Teddy gazes around the grandiose hall, at the people gathered, and he realises that all they all are, are empty shells, compensating for their lack of spirit with diamond rings that don't mean anything in the end, and he realises that he is one of them.

His heart plummets to the ice-cold floor, and a wave of realisation hits him. This is all he'll ever be. He never will be wild, lion-hearted Teddy Lupin, and he never would hold Lily's burning figure in his arms. Instead, a lifetime of frozen ice-queen Victoire awaits him.

Across the room, she laughs dangerously, before turning and catching his eye.

"We are forever," she mouths, and my god, how he wishes she were wrong.


End file.
